Return to: The Iditarod Trail - In 1908, hopeful miners throughout Alaska and the Yukon flooded the Iditarod region following the discovery of gold on Otter Creek. Within a year the main camp in the gold fields developed at Flat.

UAF-1974-42-1Dr. F. W. Herms and Z. J. Loussac set out on the winter trail between Iditarod and Flat Creek in this 1912 photo. Herms was a dentist who lived in the Ruby mining district; Loussac would gain prominence as an Anchorage businessman, and served as mayor from 1948 to 1951. The three-story Z. J. Loussac Public Library, erected in 1986, is the main branch in the Anchorage Municipal Libraries system. Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks